


How Mothers Are

by mirrorcrackd



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Canon Compliant, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/M, Gen, However you want to see it, Missing Scene, Or Friendship, Pre-Relationship, mothers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-03-30
Updated: 2014-03-30
Packaged: 2018-01-17 15:10:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,291
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1392280
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mirrorcrackd/pseuds/mirrorcrackd
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>She wasn't strong enough or fast enough when she was small to save her mother; now she was too weak to avenge her.</p>
            </blockquote>





	How Mothers Are

**Author's Note:**

> Missing scene for The Southern Raiders. Un-beta'd.

Katara stalked angrily back to Appa, climbing up into the saddle and sitting as far to the back as she could.  She didn't look at Zuko as he readied Appa for flight, as he climbed up to take the reins of the sky-bison. She focused on breathing as they flew back towards the campsite, and tried to regain her balance after the confrontation with Yon Rha. 

 

She couldn't, in the end, kill him as she had so desperately wanted to. He was pitiful and pathetic, reduced to a life of anonymity and boredom. When faced with the threat of his own death, he attempted to placate her with the life of his own mother. That alone should have been enough to condemn him: that he had the audacity to try and throw away what she would give anything to have back. His was a life without honor, and the rational part of her agreed that it was more fitting to leave him alive in his dishonorable misery than to give him the honor of death.  The less rational, angrier, part of her still howled at the injustice he had committed against her, still wished to see him die a long, slow death that might possibly approximate the pain of losing her mother.  This part of her was disgusted with herself for being unable to go through with her revenge.  She had let her mother down again.  She wasn't strong enough or fast enough when she was small to save her mother; now she was too weak to avenge her.

 

At this thought, her anger dissipated leaving only a sick, empty feeling. She wrapped her arms around her legs and buried her face in her knees as the tears slipped silently down her cheeks.  She barely noticed when it stopped raining, and only really came back to herself when she felt Appa begin to descend.  She looked up and wiped her face, but the tears weren't quite ready to relinquish their hold on her yet.  She tried to pull herself together before Appa landed, not wanting to face the others with the signs of her breakdown still showing.  But try as she might, the tears would not stop, and so she began to brace herself for the concern of the others, Aang and Sokka especially.

 

However, when Appa did touch down, there were no welcoming shouts, none of the sounds of the campsite.  Katara looked out over the edge of Appa's saddle, only to see empty forest around them.  

 

"Where are we?" she asked, then winced at the croak that was her voice.

 

Zuko turned towards her.  "We're about a mile away from the camp.  I thought you might want more time to get yourself together." He frowned, and shifted nervously.  "Though if you want to get back, that's fine.  I'll just get Appa ready, and then we can -"

 

"No.  I - thank you.  I'm not ready yet." She slouched back against the side of the saddle again in relief.  She didn't want to have to explain to the others about what had happened.  Not yet.  

 

Zuko looked at her with something that might have been compassion for a moment, then cleared his throat and looked away.  "Um. Well.  I'll just... I'll take a walk, you probably want to be alone, but I'll be close enough that you can yell if you need anything or..." he trailed off uncertainly, and started to climb down off of Appa.

 

"Stay," Katara choked, suddenly afraid that if she was left alone, her thoughts would overwhelm her.  Zuko paused, then switched directions to climb up into the saddle, sitting down next to her.  "How terrible of a daughter am I," said Katara quietly after a few minutes, "that I can't even finish what I started?"

 

"Katara..."

 

"No. I meant to kill him. It's what I came for.  I - I needed to kill him.  For her. Because I couldn't stop him killing her. I couldn't - I was too slow, too late, it was all my fault, she died because of me, if I hadn't been a Waterbender, she'd still be alive today!" Katara's voice rose as she spoke faster and faster.

 

"It's not your fault, Katara," said Zuko.  

 

"Yes, it is! She died because he was looking for me! Because she was trying to protect me!"

 

"That's what mothers do.  If you mess with their babies, they're going to bite you back," he said.  Katara looked at him. He had sounded like he was quoting someone just then.  He rubbed the back of his head. "It's something my mother said to me, years ago.  If you mess with a mother's babies, she bites. That's what your mother was doing, the only way she could.  Biting back by lying to him.  By protecting you.  It's not your fault."

 

Katara stared at him, but he just stared at his hands and said nothing. It was unusual for Zuko to say so much at once about his family.  Even more so for it to sound... good.  Like he had happy memories. 

 

She wasn't convinced that there wasn't something more she should have done to save her mother, but... Zuko was right.  Mothers protect their children.  And that was something that Katara could understand, even if she technically wasn't a mother yet. After all, there was precious little that she wouldn't do for any member of their little family. She wasn't willing to give up her self-blame yet, but hearing it spelled out like that... well, it was enough to quiet the guilt, at least for a while.  She needed to think about it more.  But not right now.

 

"She sounds like a very wise woman, your mom," Katara said finally, wiping her eyes. 

 

Zuko huffed a small breath, the corners of his mouth turning up the tiniest bit.  "She was." Katara blinked at the use of the past tense, then a memory floated across her mind:  _That's something we have in common._  He had lost his mother as well.  

 

"Tell me about her," Katara said.

 

Zuko glanced at her in surprise, then nodded slowly.  "She was... kind. She always saw the good in people. She saw the good in  _me_ , long before I could. She believed in me." He traced a pattern on the surface of the saddle with his finger.  "The last thing she said to me was to always remember who I was. For a long time, I thought she meant to remember that I was the Fire Prince, even if Azula... Well. Now, I know that she meant to remember that I never give up, that I always forge my own path."

 

Katara reached out and took Zuko's hand. He stiffened, then relaxed and returned the grip.  "She would have been proud of you, you know," Katara whispered.  

 

Zuko swallowed, then nodded. "I know."  They sat there, holding hands. "That's how you avenge her, you know," Zuko whispered after a while. Katara glanced at him questioningly. "By remembering who you are. By staying true to yourself," he explained. "You remember Katara, the girl who could offer to heal even her enemy." He gestures at his face with his free hand. "You remember yourself, and you don't let even the monster who took her away from you change you."

 

Katara's eyes filled with tears again as she nodded, unable to speak.  She gripped harder to Zuko's hand, and rested her head on his shoulder. He squeezed her hand gently, then untangled his hand from hers, and wrapped his arm around her shoulders. They stayed that way until the sun began to go down.  Then Zuko sighed, then gently shifted Katara back upright.  He got up and climbed back to Appa's shoulders, where he took the reins.  

 

"Yip yip, Appa."

 


End file.
